Requirements

Explores various conceptions and understandings of leadership from classical writings, through traditional leadership studies, to more post-modern conceptions. Students consider the role of objectivity, research, ethics, and values as they refine their personal approach to educational leadership.

EDST 581: Leadership, Administration and the Aims of Education

This course focuses on the particular responsibilities of Canadian schools and especially education. Students are expected to articulate their own conceptions of education and apply these conceptions to various aspects of schooling including teaching, leadership and administration

EDST 582: The Study of Organization in the Educational Context

Classical and emerging perspectives on organizations. Different ways in which schools may be conceived and be administered. Instructional strategies include seminars, discussions, hands-on activities and simulations. Application of knowledge to organizations within which students work.

Concerned with understanding the practice of school leadership. The work of the principal is seen through various lenses: managerial, political and educational. Students are encouraged to integrate these views into their own conception of practice.

EDST 551 : Personnel Administration in Education

An overview of staffing issues such as recruitment, placement, transfer, dismissal, appeal procedures and bargaining practices. Performance evaluation techniques. Motivation of personnel from various perspectives. Issues and cases in staff development.

EDST 508: Seminar on Educational Leadership in the BC Context

This course may only be taken in conjunction with full participation in the UBC/BCPVPA Short Course offered each summer. It provides a structured opportunity to reflect in more depth on the issues raised in the Short Course and gives students an opportunity to develop a project based on their practice.

NOTE: Students pay the regular UBC course fees as well as the fee for the Short Course.

EDST 517: Improvement of Instruction through Supervision

Introduction to the philosophy and practice of supervision. Examination of literature, videotapes, and classroom teaching. Discussion and practice of both formative and summative evaluation. The supervision cycle is studied and practiced. Students analyze teaching and are made aware of relevant political considerations.

EDST 531: Politics of Educational Governance

Overview of issues associated with power, influence, authority, and control in education. A review of conflict and interest groups in education based on recent actions. Micropolitics at the school level, district and board level politics, and influences of politics at the provincial level. Case studies on the politics of innovation.

EDST 548: Teacher Unions and Education

This course examines teacher unionism and labour-management relations in education within a North American historical context, within the context of the broader union movement in Canada, and within the broader economic, social, and political context nationally and globally. Teacher unions are presented as complex organizations that represent a variety of intersecting interests related to teachers’ roles as employees, professionals, and concerned citizens.

EDST 554: Administration and Educational Policy

Development of the knowledge and skills useful to the educational administrator in policy development, implementation, and analysis. Students consider ethical dimensions, formulate policies and update policy manuals, and learn processes for policy implementation. Guest lecturers and use of a journal.

EDST 555 : Educational Finance

Covers an understanding of how budgets are raised, allocated, and spent for K–12 education in BC. Addresses the principles of finance and applies them to a variety of problems such as budgeting, staffing and fundraising. The impacts of reforms such as decentralization are discussed. Guest speakers offer differing points of view on relevant issues.

EDST 556 : Leadership and Administration of the Educational Programs

Offers students an opportunity to explore issues related to the administration of a school-wide educational program in the context of issues of equity, excellence, and social justice. Students investigate research and popular opinion related to such topics as grouping and tracking, assessment, teaching and learning styles, multiculturalism, and ESL instruction.

EDST 557: Professional Ethics for School Leaders

In this course we will draw upon readings in ethics and upon our own professional experience to address three broad, interrelated questions. The first question, which is the focus of the course, concerns ethical decision-making: How can we develop our capacity for sound professional judgment on issues with ethical or moral dimensions? The second question concerns moral leadership: How can we contribute to the creation and flourishing of ethical school communities? The third question concerns moral pluralism: How should we understand and work with conflicting points of view on fundamental moral issues

EDST 552: School Law

Introduction to basic legal concepts and terminology. Students develop an awareness of the statute law and case law that pertains to education in BC. They focus on the information needed for legal action, but not on detailed legal rules. Topics include rights, special education, liability for accidents, crime, and copyright.

EDST 561: Practicum Simulation of School Leadership and Administration

Aimed at the improvement of administrators’ decision-making and communication skills, this course presents problems that elementary and secondary principals face. Using a critical strategies format with a considerable number of case studies, students’ insights and understandings of school organizations are increased.

EDST 565: Alternative Programs and Independent Schools

Students examine in depth the challenges and issues concerning mission, governance, leadership, curricular focus, funding, staffing, parental roles, and accountability. Debates, visiting speakers, presentations and critiques are used to compare and contrast both public alternatives and independent programs.

EDST 565: Organizational Learning in Education

This course aims to develop understanding and basic skills relating to the engagement of organizational members in collaborative incremental and transformational learning and change. Although the emphasis is on public schools, the theory and processes discussed are broadly applicable to a variety of other organizations.

EDST 565: Identity and Power in Work Organizations

This course will explore issues of identity and power as they apply across a variety of organizations, including K–12 schools, post-secondary education, and business. Identity is defined and examined using a variety of theoretical lenses. The central questions addressed in the course are: How do individuals come to identify, disidentify, or underidentify with organizations in which they work, and how is this process influenced by the way management treats employees, by organizational policies and practices, and by external policies that affect the organization? The course aims to develop understanding related to processes of engaging organizational learning in collaborative, incremental, and transformative learning and change.

EDST 579: School-Community Relations

The course addresses the social, political, and economic forces impacting school-community relations and the role played by educational leadership in this regard.

EDST 580: Directed Study

A student links up with a professor and investigates a problem of special interest that is not covered in depth in the course work. Some problems may be selected from the student’s place of work. The student and professor maintain contact by meeting, telephone, faxes, and e-mail. Registration is by manual methods, not on line.

EDST 590: Graduating Paper

An opportunity to focus on an administrative problem in depth that is of particular interest to the student. Often involves assembling the relevant knowledge, collecting information from the student’s school district, and submitting the results to the student’s employer. The paper may take many forms, including original research, critical literature review, a case analysis, or a proposal for educational policy.

EDST 598: Field Experience

Individually tailored, this is an opportunity to spend time shadowing an educator in a school, district office, or other workplace usually during three full-time weeks in May. Students complete a journal and assess their experience in light of what they have learned in their course work. Supervised jointly by a faculty member and an administrator. Most accessible to full-time students.

EDST 599: Master’s thesis

Consult the Handbook of Graduate Studies on the website of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at http://www.grad.ubc.ca

There are many electives you are eligible to take across the EDST and Faculty of Education calendar. Please consult with your advisor for elective options outside of the Faculty of Education.